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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Some time back, while I still lived in northern Kentucky, I made a visit to ancient sites in Ohio: Serpent Mound and Leo Petroglyph Rock. This journey was part of a series of explorations following a vision I had of a Copper Star.

Serpent Mound

Copper Star

This drawing (above) is just a fragment. In my vision, the star was surrounded by crows.

I was advised by a friend to visit these sites to see what I might find there related to this vision. I did not find a copper star, but I found other interesting things, including copper water in a nearby stream. I also saw glyphs that reminded me of Mishipeshu, the Copper Monster of Lake Superior (as a young girl, I lived near Lake Superior - ever since, I have been fascinated by the stories and myths of that region).

After visiting the sites in Ohio, I happened to meet an elder Hopi woman who was living in the area. She had been asked by her teacher on 3rd Mesa to go there and start up teaching circles. According to Hopi history, this region had been home to ancient Hopi migrations, and many of the mounds and other sites are remnants of that time. The Serpent Mound in particular is said to be of Hopi origin. I joined one of Grandmother J's teaching circles and over time learned that the copper star was a Hopi sign. She showed me a "dreaming blanket" that had on it a picture of a copper star surrounded by 24 crows! I was stunned.

Anyway, here are some images of the area, and glyphs related to my story here...

Map of Serpent Mound

Bird figure with a spirit coming out or in of it's mouth!
It seems to be some kind of transformation concept.

A bear track image - my foot fit inside it perfectly.

A creature on the Leo Petroglyph Rock - an Owl?

Mishipeshu - the Copper Monster of Lake Superior

Copper Water near the Leo Petroglyph Rock

During this period, I also had a dream of a strange being gazing at me from beneath water. My note at the time: "...from beneath a veil of swamp green water, a blinking eye gazes back at me."

So... I recently reviewed some of my old sketch books, whereupon I decided to revisit this dream image, and make it into clay.

Then it hit me... my dream image of the eye was related to my visit to Serpent Mound (duh!). Perhaps it was my subconsciousness morphing my experience into the image of a living serpent-like creature that could literally stare back at me, or on a more esoteric level, maybe I was able to connect with a strange being out of an ancient time. Who knows? It doesn't really matter - I don't need an answer. I prefer to leave my imagination to it's own devices - much more fun!

Friday, November 1, 2013

I've been slowly getting ready for the holidays with various ideas for beads. Still haven't thought through what I want to do for ornaments. Not sure I will do any this year. Hmm...

Here's just a few photos of what I've been up to...

First some sketches for sets of beads in a "Holiday Birds" series...

Here's some of the beads in progress...

I'm also working on a set of Chanukah beads, here is a dreidel bead, one of the beads in the set...

A new Owlie bead! Meet Owlie Chick:

I've also been watching over the building of the new studio. Still so much to do! I noticed out back that several cobblestones had been dug up and were laying around. This area is full of cobblestones, smoothly worn stones from the glaciers that used to be here. Some are quite large. They look like dinosaur eggs!

Last week or so, I found an enormous mushroom near the cabin. It was about the size of a pie!

I decided to remove it so I flipped it over ("TIMBER!!!"). The underside is so amazing.

That's it for news - other than the wind storm blowing through here the past couple of days. Sounds like waves crashing on a shore. Just amazing.